Comments on: Jennings: 22% of city taxpayers’ money goes toward pensionshttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/
A place to talk about government closer to your homeThu, 08 Dec 2016 19:26:01 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1By: Nobetterhttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53729
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:25:15 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53729Somehow only part of my comments made it, here are the rest.

“and included in the final year’s salary for retirement calculation purposes.”

This is not accurate. Only amounts paid for hours worked are allowed.
Accrued sick leave, comp time and unused vacation are excluded from the final average salary calculation.

“Fill all vacancies in department budgets where overtime is a facet of the employee-employer relationship…..and keep them filled!”

BINGO– this one thing would reduce overtime to protracted emergencies, special events, a couple of holidays and a few heavy vacation weeks a year. Full staffing reduces sick time, injuries and response time. Further it increases morale and our ability to mitigate the emergency’s we respond too.

“Overtime earned is included in the final average salaries used to determine retirement pay.”
This is true but it is limited by the 20% rule. Any amounts over 20% of the last years wages will be excluded in calculating the final average salary.

“Accumulated sick leave and vacation time are cash out, in the employees final pay period,”
This is True….

“and included in the final year

]]>By: hawknyhttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53594
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:32:33 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53594Over 70 Albany city employees currently earn over $100,000, out of a workforce of about 1,000.

Most of these earners are in areas of public safety and management.

Police and fire personnel retire at half pay after 20 years of service. (Why?)

The calculation of half pay for retirement purposes is based upon the average of the prospective retiree’s three highest years of salary earned during their entire span of city employment

Overtime earned is included in the final average salaries used to determine retirement pay.

Accumulated sick leave and vacation time are cash out, in the employees final pay period, and included in the final year’s salary for retirement calculation purposes.
This allows the final average salary upon which a pension is based to be as much as 50%-60% higher that what it would otherwise be for select personnel.

Solutions:

Establish age 55 as the minimum age at which any city employee can begin to draw down pension and other retirement benefits. All employees who leave city employment before age 55 must be required to do so without being pension eligible until age 55.

Eliminate accumulated sick leave from the final average salary calculation. Sick leave is a privilege, not a right, according to NYS labor law.

Put a cap on the amount of vacation that can be added to the last year’s final average alarm calculation. Set that cap at the amount of vacation hours the employee earns in the final year, or, establish a limit of $12,000 exclusively for all employees, for pension calculation purposes..

Reduce all salaries to a ceiling of $100,000/year, starting with the mayor’s annual salary. Anyone in local government, be it employee of elected/appointed official, who cannot live on a $100,000 annual wage, while working in municipal government is in the wrong line of work. They should seek employment elsewhere.

Utilize the 240 hour compensatory time rules allowed by the IRS. (20hrs. per month X 12 months works just fine). Require that all employees earn 20 hours of comp time, per month before earning any actual $$$ for hours worked beyond the normal work week. The employer can schedule the employee who has accumulated comp time to be “off” to use up this compensatory time at the employer’s convenience, not at the employee’s discretion.

Fill all vacancies in department budgets where overtime is a facet of the employee-employer relationship…..and keep them filled!

Determine pension levels upon each employee’s 5 highest years of wages earned, rather than the highest 3 years.

]]>By: Anonymoushttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53528
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:54:08 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53528[In 2001, only 1% of the Albany taxpayers property taxes went to pension costs, as of last year they are paying 22% of their taxes to cover pension costs.

This means that ten years ago Albany residents were contributing approximately $7.50 per person to cover pension costs, today they are paying almost $130.]

Pushing aside the sheer fact that the State pension system is 100% solvent, and that the real conversation (as Cincinnatus points out) is that private sector wages and compensation are too low…

This is a load of bologna. First, the total budget of Albany is funded only in part by taxes. This is the result of grants and spin-up, as well as other funding, and largely necessitated by the large amount of exempt property in Albany.

The kicker here, is that not all of it NEEDED to be exempt. No, Jerry’s been busy giving away the farm to his donors, er “developers”, in sweetheart deals. Then he has the audacity to cry poverty when it comes time to pay for Albany’s Finest & Bravest.

What a schmuck…

]]>By: Parma Hamhttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53510
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:33:18 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53510Tom Dinapoli works for public labor unions, not for every New Yorker, that couldn’t be any more clear.
]]>By: Not my real namehttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53452
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:57:57 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53452Jennings is lying? Wow, what a news flash.

While I would agree with her on this, and I think it is one of the basic truths in albany, it isn’t the real truth.

He is just lying to help his friend Andy. And I can’t blame him. Has anyone ever given you an $8 million gift? I bet you’d lie for anyone who did. I’m pretty certain i would. $8 million.

]]>By: Poppyhttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53421
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:29:01 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53421Let’s also remember it was the Mayor and Common Council in years past which approved the most lucrative pension plans. The State Retirement System provides a number of plans, some more expensive and lucrative than others. Every time a plan was sweetened, the City Leadership approved it.

I realize getting elected officials to own up to contributing to the pension cost problem in Albany is like spitting in the wind but Jerry needs to look in the mirror on this one.

]]>By: taxpayer101http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53355
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:56:29 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53355…thanks, #4 -Ebenezer
]]>By: Cincinnatushttp://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/11115/jennings-22-of-city-taxpayers-money-goes-toward-pensions/#comment-53342
Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:44:06 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/?p=11115#comment-53342We have a problem in our society: we criticize public employees for making “too much” when the real problem is that private sector employees don’t make enough. Envy is generated, then we attack public sector workers (especially teachers and rank and file civil servants). It is a foolish, silly thing to do.

That being said, the current system, especially as it pertains to police and fire (in Albany at least), is out of hand. But the main reason it is out of hand is because politicians on the State level traded sweet deals for political support (e.g. pegging pensions to the market when times were good, never thinking that the market would fall again).

Jennings was a cheerleader for these efforts, and it is disingenuous for him to now be calling for an adjustment that doesn’t get to the heart of the problem which he participated in creating. If he was serious, he would curtail overtime and actually have employees contribute to their retirement health insurance (like all other public employees, including police and fire elsewhere).